NFL makes big changes to blackout policy, but what will Bucs do?

Summary of 10 articles · Updated Jul 3, 2012

So while those who oppose the blackout policy senators and common fans alike can celebrate this week’s news, the blackout policy isn’t dead yet. In today's newspaper, we detailed the reported changes to the NFL's television blackout policy, which is being… (more) softened significantly. The NFL for years has maintained that it was not going to relax its blackout rules. The news that the NFL plans to relax the blackout policy to allow teams to put their games on local television as long as 85 percent of the tickets are sold was praised by Brown, who says he now believes blackouts will no longer be an issue for either of the teams in his home state. It’s still possible, however, that some Bengals home games could be blacked out: Bengals owner Mike Brown could choose not to take advantage of the NFL’s loosening of the rules and require all of the tickets at Paul Brown Stadium to be sold before he’ll lift the blackout. This move takes a lot of pressure off franchises such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have been putting tarp on empty seats in order to meet the sellout requirements to prevent blackouts.

Senator who criticized blackout policy applaud’s NFL’s decision

Late last year, as the Cincinnati Bengals were blacked out on local television for the sixth time of the season, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio called the blackout policy a failure and said the NFL needs to scrap it. So Brown liked what he heard thi…